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Monday, July 30, 2012

A lot of the nurses I work with on nights, basically live a nocturnal life even on the days that they don't work. I cannot fathom doing that for a number of reasons: 1) I already feel isolated from the "normal" people who work during daylight hours, 2) I would become a TV watching/internet surfing snack-a-saurus, and 3) I wouldn't be able to do all of the fun things we like to do!

Therefore, even if I work the night before we plan to go somewhere, I make it work, and I think it is worth losing some sleep over.

This weekend we went to the Taylor Reservoir, which is near Crested Butte, for some camping.

Suki watched the apartment while we were gone.

And I picked up some fresh cherries for the road!

Aside from raining both nights we camped, it was a fun trip.

Kitchen

We even did some off-roading in the Jeep, I drove! Serious off-roading too...our friend Mari closed her eyes at least a handful of times. It was legit.

We went into Crested Butte on Saturday and grabbed some lunch at a place we like called Teocali Tamale, yum, best burritos ever! We walked around a bit, got some ice cream, and then headed back to camp.

A short, but action-packed weekend for sure. On our drive home, we stopped at this little old fashioned drive-in place for burgers and fries. It reminded me so much of Boehringer's but I hate to say that the burgers were waaaay better...sorry A-town!

Now, two more nights of work and then a week off! Annnnddddd...one of my best friends from college is coming for a visit. I can hardly contain myself. I'm so excited!! Woo!!

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Some days I come home from work feeling not only exhausted from working 12 hours through the night but also frustrated by working so hard for what seems like so little and for ungrateful [ie asshole] patients on top of that. But then there are other days, like today, when my patients are so amazing that they literally make me want to cry...happy tears. Last night I had five awesome patients who just made me feel so great and proud of what I do and remind me that I actually DO do something meaningful...despite the rest of my days when I wonder why the hell I spent an additional shit-ton of money to be a friggin' registered nurse.

Pt 1: A little lady who is already going on her 13th day in the hospital and today found out she has to go back to surgery yet again. Every time I went into her room she would grab my hand and thank me endlessly for caring so much for her. When I left this morning she held my hand and asked me to pray for her today and told me that she wished I was coming back tonight to take "such great care of her again."

Pt 2: Very depressed patient on countless anti-depressants and anti-psych meds, thanked me for making him laugh today, saying "I haven't done that for a while."

Pt 3: Another depressed patient, on the verge of being under suicide watch, who lost her daughter last year, and is sick with no know cause. I had some time to sit with her and chat for a while and then she was finally able to get a full night of sleep. When the day nurse came back in she said, "what the hell did you do!? you cured her, she's a different person!" She was finally smiling and the darkness you saw when you looked at her was brightening.

Pt 4: A 50 yr old man who looked at least 70, recently found out that he has metastasized cancer and changed his code status to Do Not Resuscitate because of his poor prognosis. He was such a happy man despite all of the sadness in his life and thanked me for taking "such good care of him" and said "really, I want you to know that you are one of the good ones, I mean that." That's when I almost teared up and lost it.

Pt 5: Sweetest and healthiest mid-50's man, came in for a fever and unknown to him his preliminary ultrasound showed signs of possible liver cancer. He, his wife, and I had similar senses of humor so we really had some great conversations and laughs and it really broke my heart to know that unbeknownst to him and his wife, he may soon be diagnosed with liver cancer.

Long post, I know. And I'm not bragging...trust me, if you knew all about my bad days you'd get it. But I just felt like sharing a little bit about these great people I got to take care of today.

It's a deep down good feeling when you are reminded that you really are making a difference in other people's lives, especially during some of their worst times.

Friday, July 20, 2012

My mom happened to be impressed by my new sewing ability and asked me to make some pillow covers for her. While I was home, we went to the best fabric store ever, Burkholder's, a mennonite store with more fabric than I could even stand to look at and picked out a bunch a fabrics for me to take back to Colorado.

I busted out the first five in a week and for some reason I just couldn't get the sixth one finished...until this week.

Here are the finished products (flipped corners show the back side), all have zippered bottom seams:

Close ups:

The top and bottom pics are the 16x16" pillows and the rest are 14x14". I sent my mom a preview before I shipped them and she loved them! Success!

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

I found this awesome quote painting on Pintrest and fell in love with it.

I got a small fraction of my mom's artistic talent so I thought that I could totally do this myself.

Here's how it went:

First, I bought an antique map of North America on Esty for like $10 and then got a "floating" frame at Hobby Lobby because I didn't feel like spending the money to get a custom cut mat and frame for the odd sized map.

And because I didn't want a black frame I spray painted it silver...wishing now that I would have gone with gold but whatever.

Next, I painted the map. I marked the letters in pencil and painted away.

I like it! Going on the wall as soon as I figure out which blank wall deserves it most.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Yes, you all already know. I sold my poor old Jetty and bought myself a little big Jeep. But I'm going to post and rant about it anyway. As you all know...if you know me well...if I get an idea in my mind, watch the F out. Seriously. I can't be stopped. Sometimes that's good, somethings...not good. In this case, it's both? I spent a significant amount of money like (SNAP) that but my beloved Jetta was so in need of retiring that she basically kept me trapped in a 1 mile radius of our apartment if Collin was out of town. Not cool. Something had to be done.

Done.

I've been researching cars/trucks/suv's online for quite a while now but every time it seems to get serious I back out...hmmm. This past weekend I found a really nice Jeep Wrangler Unlimited (the 4-door version...duh...for all my children) for sale in the Springs. I was kinda sold from the start.

And if you've heard the Kia story you know I absolutely CANNOT go to a car dealership alone. Long story short: decided to test drive Kia SUV after one of many Jetta malfunctioning-episodes, salesman crunched those #s and brought back a monthly payment I couldn't afford, I told him so, he came back like ooooooh $5 cheaper, and I was like "well, OK", Collin becomes master-girlfriend-protector and saves my ass by not allowing me to 1) buy a car I didn't really want, 2) spend money I wasn't comfortable spending on a car I didn't really want....etc etc etc...get it? Point is...that was a long story long and I really meant to say that Collin always covers my butt and stands up for me when salesmen make me think I'm stealing their cars. Whew.

This time, I stood up for myself quite well I must say, with some help from Collin...as in helping me to get more than double the initial offer for my trade-in. You'd think I'd be good at bargaining seeing as I'm the spawn of Roslyn the negotiator; no-go on that gene.

Collin was not liking the salesman and wanted to walk out but I was set on this Jeep. We finally talked him into a price I was comfortable with and that was that. My dad's advice: he loved it but thought I should 'sleep on it' but I didn't take it and just bought it. Surprise! I didn't take advice, what do ya know! But I woke up this morning knowing it was the right choice!

I'm super excited about it...almost as excited as Collin.

Yup, top down today. We regretted that decision while sitting in the dead-stopped traffic while literally Crockpotting to death in the 96 degree weather. After sweating profusely and nearly becoming delirious we managed to pull off the road, put the top back on, and turn the AC on...

Amateur mistake.

I also cut off another Jeep driver. I'm sure that's bad Jeep karma. I don't get the "it's a Jeep thing" just yet and I'm sure those people who do can tell that I don't. Whatevs.

But I look darn cute in that honkin' rig of mine, cuter than Collin too.

We are loving it already and it's only been a day! Oh, the adventures we have planned... Can't wait!

Monday, July 16, 2012

Collin just got back from Idaho on Saturday from a little fishing trip with his dad. He sent me pictures everyday and it looks like they had a great time! Their first stop was in Jackson Wyoming and then the next day onto Idaho.

He said it was a great trip but he's glad to be home. He even got me a t-shirt, woo!!

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Yesterday we went out to Eleven Mile Canyon for some hiking and fishing. Collin was raring to go but I needed at least a few hours of sleep after work. I slept for three hours and then we were on our way.

That excited look of his

Unfortunately, it was super cloudy when we got there and ruined my plans of getting some more sun.

Collin was happy fishing so I walked up the river with him for a little, walked around and took some pictures...

There were a few spots where the fire singed the trees.

...then my exhaustion set in and I had to lay down. We went to a different area of the river and Collin kept fishing while I snoozed in the back of the truck.

On our way home we stopped in Woodland Park at Beriwerks Brewery for a beer and a snack. When we got home Collin cooked up a yummy steak dinner and I made dessert.

It definitely did not feel like the 4th of July...no cookout, fireworks, or family...but we still had fun and made the best of it!

Tonight we're heading up to Denver for dinner with Allison, Acey, Julia, and Collin's dad!